Section 1 (4-1) Properties of Minerals

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Vocabulary

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inorganic- not made or rised from that in the past was alive.
crystal- a mineral which repeats a pattern of mineral's particles.
element- a substance that is made up of a single atom.
compound- a mineral in which two different element are joined together and they no longer have distinct properties.
Mohs hardness scale- a scale which ranks minerals from softest to hardest in ten ranks.
streak- the color of a minerals powder.
luster- a word that describes how a mineral reflects light of its surface.
cleavage- a minerals property that allows it to split easily along flat surfaces.
fracture- the breaking of a mineral in an irregular way.
fluorescence- the property of a mineral that allows it to glow under ultra-violet light.

Outline

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What is a Mineral?

• minerals are/have
  • naturally occuring
    • It can not be made by animal or people such as glass.
  • inorganic
    • It can not come from something alive or part of once alive thing such as coals.
  • solid
  • distinct chemical composition
• can be identified by physical and chemical properties
  • physical and chemical properties

Identifying Minerals

• hardness
  • determined by Mohs hardness scale
  • The best clue of all of these is the hardness.
• color
  • Color can not be used to some minerals because they can have different colors or have a same color.
• streak
  • You look at streak color to find which mineral is it.
• luster
  • Luster is a term for mineral to reflect the light.
    • The mineral that contains metal is often shiny.
• density
  • Each mineral has their characteristic density.
  • You look when the minerals break in irregular way.
• fracture
  • Fracture describes the way mineral looks when broken
    • The mineral which breaks easily is called cleavage.
• crystal systems
  • There are six kinds of crystal systems.
• Special Properties
  • Some rocks have special properties.
    • One of the special property is called fluorescence.
      • It is a property which glows in ultra-violet light.

Types of minerals

• elements
• compounds

Diagram of a rock with fluorescence property

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